Category: Uncensored News

Sex hospital! New clinic aims to get patients back in bed after surgery: Britain’s first ever ‘sexual healing’ centre aims to revolutionise speed and success of recovery from some of the UK’s biggest killers

by Diana Appleyard

BRITAIN’S first sexual healing hospital clinic is about to open its doors.

It claims it will revolutionise the speed and success of recovery from the UK’s biggest killers such as cancer, strokes and heart disease.

It also aims to aid recovery from routine surgery such as hip replacements and conditions such as diabetes.

Launching later this month at the private Spire Hospital in Southampton, it is the work of sexual healing guru Mike Lousada, his partner Dr Louise Mazanti and leading hip-replacement surgeon Dr Jeremy Latham.

Dr Latham first had the idea after recognising a significant issue for his patients was the impact on their sex life. He said: “It’s extraordinary that, so far, the sexual needs of patients have been virtually ignored.

“I wanted to conduct a survey on this but couldn’t get funding so carried out one with a partner in Australia and we found 37 per cent of women with arthritic hips wanted hip surgery specifically so they could have sex with their partner.

“Various clinical studies have also shown how important sexual healing is to recovery from trauma. It is the one issue patients always want to ask me about, although they are often too shy.

“By having this sexual wellness clinic on our doorstep, we can refer patients straight away, knowing they will get expert, practical and informed treatment and advice.”

According to medical research, regular sex has the same benefits as regular exercise. It increases the flow of chemicals that naturally boost and strengthen the immune system, improves cholesterol levels, stimulates the circulation, invigorates the heart and diminishes the intensity of pain.

Team players … new clinic is the work of sexual healing guru Mike Lousada, his partner Dr Louise Mazanti and leading hip-replacement surgeon Dr Jeremy Latham Chris Balcombe

Mr Lousada, who will be running the hospital clinic with Dr Mazanti, said: “The need to have sex is the most basic vital function we have.

“Any kind of surgery has a deep impact on the body and we know memory, emotion and trauma are ‘stored’ in the central nervous system. If untreated with professional advice, this can lead to sexual problems which will inhibit both recovery and the patient’s return to full fitness and health.

“If we can work on these, I expect we will begin to see dramatic effects on the recovery levels of patients.

“I know from my current practice helping people with sex-related problems, how much of a difference improving or restarting their sex lives makes to their wellbeing.

“There can be a temptation to avoid sexual intimacy if you are in pain or suffering, so our aim is to unlock patients’ sexual potential and make them feel like desirable sexual beings again.

“Every physical ailment has an emotional link which should be treated. We offer patients physiotherapy, so why not sexual healing?” There is a deep physiological response to sexual stimulation, within the nervous system, which is just as healing as physically manipulating limbs.

“In simple terms, your body heals much faster if you have a good sex life.”

Dr Latham continued: “We’ve known for a long time how important resuming a normal sex life is to patients. And the most significant reason for people wanting hip surgery, as well as aiding walking, is to make sex less painful.

“Sexual healing cuts across all boundaries. People suffering from heart attacks, strokes, cancer and conditions such as diabetes all see sex as a vital part of their return to, or ability to lead, a ‘normal’ life.

“It’s the one issue patients want to discuss with their doctor, nurse or physiotherapist.

“But many health professionals, no matter how well-meaning, don’t have the expertise to give the best advice and treatment.”

Dr Deborah Barrett, of the University of North Carolina, carried out a recent study of sexual healing.

She said: “Sex unleashes chemical compounds in the brain — starting with oxytocin, otherwise known as the ‘bonding’ or ‘cuddle’ hormone.

“Oxytocin increases with sensual touch and peaks during orgasm. It also reduces the effects of stress, as measured by blood pressure and cortisol, all of which are relevant in reducing pain.

“Additional substances released through skin-to-skin touch, with peak effect at orgasm, also contribute to pain relief and the body’s natural healing.

Libby Dowling, a senior clinical advisor for Diabetes UK, said: “For too long, sexual problems have been the elephant in the room when we talk about managing diabetes. Many people are reluctant to bring up the subject, although they are longing to ask, and healthcare professionals can be equally unwilling.

“It has been a hidden problem for some people and I hope in the future, they will be able to have much more open discussions.

“For this reason, we have included the issue of sex in our new book, 100 Things I Wish I’d Known About Living With Diabetes.

“Diabetes can affect the blood and nerve supply to the sexual organs, which can result in sexual dysfunction in men and inability to orgasm in women, as well as vaginal dryness and lack of arousal.

“There is also a significant link between sexual problems and depression and anxiety, which may be relevant to some people with diabetes. We are hoping to encourage people to talk much more openly about any sexual issues they have, because this can have such deep impact not just on themselves but on their partners, who can feel unloved.”

As if you needed an excuse … according to medical research, regular sex has the same benefits as regular exercise Getty Images

Testicular cancer charity Orchid also backs the new clinic. It recently carried out a survey as part of Male Cancer Awareness Month and found half of Brits did not know if treatment for testicular cancer would affect a man’s sex drive, cause erectile dysfunction or allow him to climax.

But male cancer nurse specialist Robert Cornes said: “Providing a man has two healthy testicles before getting testicular cancer, early removal of one testicle will not affect his sex drive or erectile function and he will be able to climax and have children.”

Orchid also welcomed a new survey into sexual healing. A charity spokesman said: “We know sex is such an important issue for men with testicular cancer, and this is an area that needs to be explored, with far more information and help given.”

Dr Latham added: “Having set up the clinic, we need to roll out a national study to produce evidence that can encourage public funding of sexual wellness clinics.

“We must raise the profile of sexual healing — it is an issue that has been ignored for far too long.”

It helps boost self-worth

Liz Sullivan … “I was making love when I had a stroke, at age 49. My partner noticed I was unresponsive, and I ended up in hospital in a coma for several months.”

ARTIST Lil Sullivan, 58, of Camberwell, South London, is divorced with two daughters. Lil says:

“I was making love when I had a stroke, at age 49. My partner noticed I was unresponsive, and I ended up in hospital in a coma for several months. I hadn’t been ill beforehand and it came out of the blue. I later found I had very high blood pressure.

Sadly, since the stroke, I have had very little physical intimacy and really miss it. I think resuming your sex life after a trauma such as a stroke is so important – it makes you feel that you are becoming a whole person again, and the need to be touched and be loved is inherent in all of us.

There is very little information out there about how sexual healing could affect your recovery and I think that is such a shame.

We should talk much more openly about sex because it is a vital part of life.

I am still with my partner but he is afraid to resume our sex life because that is how I had a stroke in the first place.

To me, though, it would be so lovely – I feel as if I am not attractive any more because since the stroke, I have put on weight and walk with a stick.

People need to realise how important sex is to feeling our self-worth – not just physically, but emotionally as well.”

“I was diagnosed with testicular cancer when I was 24. At the time, I was a full-time footballer, felt extremely fit and healthy and thought I was invincible. I never thought cancer would happen to me.

I was worried how my diagnosis and treatment would affect my sex life and fertility. Basically, I wanted to know whether I would still be the man I was before.

I was at stage one cancer, and had a testicle removed and a prosthetic implant put in, plus one dose of chemotherapy.

At first I was unsure about resuming our sex life – inevitably, I felt quite fragile and also lacking in confidence. My girlfriend Lauren, who later became my wife, was so understanding. We took things slowly – it was maybe four to six weeks before we resumed the physical side of our relationship.

In a way, you don’t want to burden doctors and consultants with too many questions, even though they are questions you really want to ask.

So I think having a sexual wellness clinic on hand is a really good idea and would help so many men in my condition.”

Sarah Taylor … “I have Type 1 diabetes. The symptoms began when I was 19, and studying at university. One day I collapsed and I was finally diagnosed after I was taken to hospital.” News Group Newspapers Ltd

“I have Type 1 diabetes. The symptoms began when I was 19, and studying at university. One day I collapsed and I was finally diagnosed after I was taken to hospital.

My first reaction was one of fear. Would I have to stop eating what I like, and drinking alcohol?

I was given information about how to administer my insulin injections, and once I had got over the initial shock, I did begin to wonder about how it would affect my sex life. At the time I would very much have welcomed more information about how my condition would affect my relationship and future pregnancies.

Diabetes does mean you are more prone to suffer from thrush, and that was quite awkward for me. Low blood sugar level can also affect your ability to orgasm.

The last thing you want to do is test your blood sugar levels before you have sex, as it rather takes away the spontaneity.

Being sexually active is so important to your general wellbeing, and your sense of who you are.

It also helps you to deal with the downsides, and keeps you feeling positive and optimistic.”

4. More sex means better pelvic floor health, so improved bladder control and increased blood flow to the genital region. Your pelvic floor muscles are breathing muscles so the more you use them, the better your breathing becomes. Good breathing is the key to good health in most ancient practices like yoga and Tai Chi.

5. Sex lowers your blood pressure, keeping you healthier for longer.

6. Sex lowers the risk of heart attacks which, until recently, was the number one killer in the UK.

7. Orgasms help reduce pain so if you have a headache, sex might be the answer. The less pain our body is in, the more it can relax, allowing faster healing from injury and disease.

8. Male ejaculation reduces prostate cancer and can aid recovery from prostate diseases – one of the UK’s top killers of men.

9. Prolactin, a hormone produced after orgasm, promotes sleep and sleep aids physical recovery from wounds and disease.

10. Sex releases oxytocin, the so-called bonding hormone that promotes feelings of self-esteem. The better we feel about ourselves the faster we recover from illness or injury.

Australian Engineers Develop the ‘Holy Grail’ of Condom Technology

by Tosten Burks

Researchers at the University of Queensland’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) announced today that their new latex technology, which incorporates molecular fibers extracted from native Australian grass, could be used to produce ultra-strong condoms that are 30 percent thinner than standard alternatives. The university’s president said the technology has “great potential to make a difference in the fight against HIV and AIDS.”

That’s no hyperbole. The thing about condoms is that people don’t like using them. Only 5 percent of men worldwide wear them. No less than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has devoted millions in grants to developing condom solutions that enhance pleasure rather than decrease it. The stigmatization of condoms is one of the greatest barriers to sexual health around the world.

AIBN scientists argue that their latex—developed in partnership with the local Indjalandji-Dhidhanu people, who have creatively used resin from native spinifex grass for generations—opens the door for manufacturers to start marketing thin and satisfying prophylactic products that customers will actually use, rather than focusing on strength. In early “burst tests” (in which condoms are inflated until they burst), AIBN’s condoms withstood 20 percent more pressure than the control sample. They are 25 percent thinner than Trojans.

The team is now looking to license the technology, which it calls the “Holy Grail for natural rubber,” to the multibillion-dollar latex industry, where they see potential beyond the bed, especially in the field of surgery—nanocellulose latex gloves offer surgeons more sensitivity and less hand fatigue. The university signed an agreement with the Dugalunji Aboriginal Corporation to ensure that the local Aboriginal people, whose knowledge about spinifex formed the basis of AIBN’s work, retain equity in the technology’s commercialization.

Michigan Senate Passes Bill Making Anal Sex Punishable By 15 Years In Prison

The measure was snuck into a bill banning animal abuse.

by Adam Salandra

The Michigan Senate just passed a bill that makes sodomy a felony, despite the U.S. Supreme Court declaring such a law unconstitutional.

The state’s law, which makes anal sex punishable by up to 15 years in prison, is not specifically targeted at gay people, as it’s illegal regardless of whether a couple is same-sex or different-sex.

Instead, the sodomy ban is directly linked to a law against bestiality, essentially saying the two are equal.

The law states that it is a felony for anyone to commit “the abominable and detestable crime against nature with mankind or with any animal.”

It’s the “with mankind” wording that creates the loophole to keep the sodomy ban intact, even though the 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas declared it unconstitutional.

Now that the bill has passed through the Senate, it is headed to the House for approval, which means there is still time to change the wording and keep “mankind” out of it entirely.

But GOP Senator Rick Jones says an attempt like that could put the entire bill, created to protect animals, in jeopardy.

“The minute I cross that line and I start talking about the other stuff, I won’t even get another hearing. It’ll be done,” said Jones. “Nobody wants to touch it. I would rather not even bring up the topic, because I know what would happen. You’d get both sides screaming and you end up with a big fight that’s not needed because it’s unconstitutional.”

Jones believes that the sodomy ban can only be repealed if a bill is created to strike all unconstitutional laws from the state’s books, but he is not willing to do it at the expense of his dog bill.

“If we could put a bill in that said anything that’s unconstitutional be removed from the legal books of Michigan, that’s probably something I could vote for,” he said. “But am I going to mess up this dog bill that everybody wants? No.”

A colleague of mine wrote this excellent article published in Psychology Today on this proposed bill.

Utah Declares War On Porn Epidemic

David J. Ley Ph.d.

Utah state Senate resolution that porn is addictive and destructive to marriage

Utah Declares War on Porn Epidemic

Republican State Senator Todd Weiler in Utah has introduced a resolution to the Utah legislature, calling on the State to recognize and oppose the destructive, addictive nature of pornography. Disturbingly, this legislative action is based on hyperbole and morality, ignoring much of what is known about pornography and its effects. Further, the Senator’s resolution relies on pseudoscience in a manner which has no place in governmental action.

The bill suggests that pornography represents a public health crisis, damaging teens’ brains, affecting the state of marriage, increasing rates of rape and sexual violence, and causing a host of other social problems. Weiler calls on the State Government of Utah to engage in education, research and prevention efforts to address this “epidemic.”

It would take far too long to address in entirety, each of the insubstantial claims made by Weiler’s resolution, but a few salient points are clear:

WHEREAS, this early exposure is leading to low self-esteem and body imagedisorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and an increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior;

Weiler suggests that pornography exposure causes low self-esteem in teens, and leads to risky sexual behaviors. In fact, a massive study in the United Kingdom, which reviewed over 40,000 research articles on the effects of porn on teens was unable to substantiate any such effects. A longitudinal study conducted in the Netherlands found that pornography exposure in teens explained less than 1% of the behavior of such teens, including risky sexual behavior. Blaming porn for such problems is a distraction of the worst sort, ignoring the critical issues of education, poverty, family variables and substance use/mental health

WHEREAS, exposure to pornography often serves as childrens’ and youths’ sex education and shapes their sexual templates;

The Weiler resolution suggests that pornography often serves as sex education for teens and children. Here, surprisingly, we agree. Pornography unfortunately IS often a form of sex education for youth, most notably, when they have not received sex education which adequately prepares the youth for the world of modern sexuality. Weiler seems to be indicting the state of Utah’s sex education curriculum. One can only hope that he will thus support greater sex education efforts for youth in Utah. (Utah is currently embroiled in a battle against comprehensive sex education)

WHEREAS, recent research indicates that pornography is potentially biologically
addictive, which means the user requires more novelty, often in the form of more shocking material, in order to be satisfied;
WHEREAS, this biological addiction leads to increasing themes of risky sexual
behaviors, extreme degradation, violence, and child sexual abuse images and child pornography;

SCR 9 suggests that pornography use causes a biological addiction, which leads to desire for more extreme porn, and which causes sexual violence, including sexual abuse of children. Sadly, Weiler appears unaware of the wealth of research demonstrating that increased porn access in societies correlates strongly with a decrease in sexual violence and sexual crimes. Further, Weiler’s promotion of the concept of porn addiction in legislation, furthers psychological damage to the citizens of Utah. Research has shown that belief in porn addiction causes feelings of distress and depression, feelings unrelated to actual porn use.

WHEREAS, pornography use is linked to lessening desire in young men to marry,
dissatisfaction in marriage, and infidelity;
WHEREAS, this link demonstrates that pornography has a detrimental effect on the
family unit;

It’s in the final terms of Weiler’s bill though, where his conservative interests become most clear. Throughout the resolution, it is clear that Weiler believes that it is men who watch porn, and women who are abused by it. There is a pervasive heteronormative tone throughout the resolution, suggesting that Weiler’s main concern is that pornography decreases males’ interest in marrying women and having children. The fact that pornography is often a safe, healthy outlet for women, and for those who are not heterosexual, and live in socially conservative areas such as Utah, seems ignored.

There’s really little new in Weiler’s resolution. The Meese Commission, US Senate hearings by Sam Brownback, etc, have all involved political efforts to deem pornography as a public health issue. Pseudoscience such as sex addiction, or the famous testimony about “erototoxins” often makes an appearance, to support the moral agenda which is truly behind these politics. In Utah, groups such as Fight the New Drug are presenting similar morally-laden pseudoscience in public schools, in place of sexual education.

Utah is, according to numerous reports, one of the states with the highest rates of pornography use in the US. In 2013, Weiler introduced a similar resolution, which was passed by the Utah senate, declaring that pornography was a “gateway” behavior which affected teens’ brains. Clearly, Weiler, and the Utah Senate are concerned about what high rates of porn use in their state will do. Perhaps they should instead be wondering what it means, that so many in Utah are unable to express or understand their sexual desires, and turn to pornography as a private outlet. Utah remains committed to abstinence only sexual education, and prohibits teachers from instructing teens about contraception.

NSFW Video – “There are lots of ways to watch sex in this world, but here’s a unique and illuminating perspective: sex from inside a vagina. Highly informative, yet in no way safe for an open-office floor plan, this clip — narrated by scientists who explain the body’s various contractions, secretions, and reactions…. The final result is a video that was made purely for scientific study, showing every moment of their encounter.

The triple-star code, created some time in the first part of the 20th century, identified the printed works that were considered too hot for the general reader to handle.

Playboy was once classified with a triple star. So were raunchy pulp novels, fliers for Times Square massage parlors, business cards offering phone sex for $2 a minute, even playing cards with illustrations of naked women.

For decades, they were kept in locked cages, accessible only with special permission and viewed in a small, secured area in the main research library.

More recently, hundreds of works that make up the triple-star collection have been liberated from the restricted controls. An adult with a library card can simply fill out a request and peruse the material on the premises. (The library maintains a filter system to restrict access to erotic materials on the Internet.)

“Erotica was not something we were particularly going after, but we needed to collect life as it was lived,” said Jason Baumann, a collections curator. “We needed to understand and document for history what the city of New York was like. That meant collecting the good and the bad. It was always part of our mandate.”

The triple-star collection is a miniature version of the vast archive of erotica at France’s National Library. That collection, called “L’Enfer” (“Hell”), dates from the 19th century, when the library, in Paris, isolated any work considered “contrary to good morals.” In 2008, the National Library mounted its first major exhibition of highlights from the collection. It drew record crowds; no one under 16 was admitted.

The New York Public Library, by contrast, has never had a similar exhibition. The materials are not as rich, and the standards of what is considered proper for an exhibition in a public institution differ in France from those in the United States.

And unlike France’s National Library, whose sexually explicit material is contained in one archive, only a part of the Public Library’s erotica was designated triple star. The rest is dispersed in other collections in the building, including in the Berg Collection of English and American Literature (rare books and manuscripts) and the Spencer Collection(artists’ books and illuminated manuscripts).

A guided visit to the library revealed some of the richness of its erotic (or pornographic, depending on who was doing the classification) material. The works are hidden treasures, many of them awaiting discovery. Not even the curators and librarians know everything that is there.

“There were many materials in the library’s special collections that I had never seen before,” Mr. Baumann said. “The range and depth of our collections never ceases to astonish me.”

The main building of the Public Library had such an impact on the neighborhood that there was once a massage parlor a block away on West 43rd Street named the Library. A 1976 flier in the *** collection advertised its $10, tip-included service, with “7 Beautiful Librarians to Service You.” The flier shows a longhaired “librarian” dressed in a necklace and high heels. A large bunch of feathers covers her private parts.

As part of the library’s mandate to collect life as it was lived, small teams of librarians were dispatched in the 1970s to Times Square pornography shops to scoop up representative samples of the latest erotica. Among the paperback titles in the collection: “Animal Urge,” “The 48-Hour Orgy,” “Beach Stud” and “All Day Sucker.”

“The bookstore owners hated it when we showed up,” said Christopher Filstrup, a former librarian who was part of the shopping brigade. “But we loved it. Books and magazines were organized just the way librarians do it, by subject — fetish, S and M, black and white, that kind of thing. Since I was head of the Oriental Division my assignment was Asians.

“Oh, I did chubby, too.”

The pulp novels and sexually explicit how-to books were printed on such poor-quality paper that the bulk of them were preserved on microfilm; the original books were discarded.

But hundreds were kept, including books disguised as sociology whose aim was titillation. They had titles like “Mass Orgasms: A Study of Group Sex Activity” and “Fornication and the Law.”

The library was one of the first major American institutions to invest heavily in the collection of erotic gay and lesbian literature, and it now boasts one of the country’s finest collections in American gay history. “We collected in the heyday of midcentury gay erotica,” Mr. Baumann said. “Looking back, we were pioneers.”

The library’s collection was enhanced in 1988 when it was given the archives of the New York-based International Gay Information Center, much of which dealt with gay and lesbian sex and sexuality.

The library has highbrow erotica as well. Deep in the Berg rare book collection, for example, is a work that has never been publicly displayed: William Faulkner’s pencil drawings of him and Meta Carpenter Wilde, his mistress, having sex.

Ms. Wilde gave the drawings to the library on condition that they remain inaccessible until the death of Faulkner’s daughter, Jill Faulkner Summers, who died in 2008.

“No researchers have been in to see them, but they certainly could do so,” said Isaac Gewirtz, the Berg’s curator of literary manuscripts.

Asked why the library had not publicized the availability of the drawings, he replied, “I thought it would be unseemly, since we know the identity of the persons in the drawings. They’re listed in our catalog for anyone to see.”

Mr. Gewirtz displayed the drawings on a long table along with other prizes in his collection, including Henry Miller’s typewritten manuscript for “Tropic of Capricorn,” with his handwritten edits; a 1947 humorous, pornographic cartoon by the novelist Jack Kerouac; a first edition of a pornographic poem by W. H. Auden; a first edition of Vladimir Nabokov’s English-language novel “Lolita,” published in Paris in 1955 after Nabokov failed to find a publisher in the United States.

Also in the Berg Collection, in the archived papers of Terry Southern, the writer, is a carbon copy typescript of the comic, erotic novel “Candy,” with emendations in Southern’s hand.

Up a flight of stairs, in the gray metal rare-book stacks, Mr. Gewirtz showed off a shelf of pulp fiction books, yet to be cataloged, from after World War II. The books were acquired to help document the change in sexual attitudes that coincided with anti-establishment literary movements. They helped provide historical context for writers like William S. Burroughs, whose papers the library possesses.

“Sex Workers Outreach Project Philadelphia [SWOP-PHILLY] is a grassroots organization – part of a national network – dedicated to improving the lives of sex workers – those with life experience in the sex trade – in Philadelphia Metro. We are here because we have been there, are there, and we care!”

17 Facts About Sexual Violence and Sex Work

1.) Sex workers experience high levels of sexual violence. Globally, sex workers have a 45 to 75% chance of experiencing sexual violence at some point in their careers and a 32 to 55% chance of experiencing sexual violence in a given year.

2.) Sexual assault against individuals engaged sex work (especially criminalized forms of sex work) in the United States is also high. In Phoenix, AZ 37% of prostitution diversion program participants report being raped by a client, and 7.1% report being raped by a pimp. In Miami, FL, 34% of street-based sex workers reported violent encounters with clients in the past 90 days. In New York, 46% of indoor sex workers reported being forced to do something by a client that they did not want to do, and over 80% of street-based sex workers experienced violence.

3.) One in five police reports of sexual assault from an urban, U.S. emergency room were filed by sex workers. Sex workers were younger, poorer and suffered a greater number of injuries than other victims.

5.) Stigma increases violence.Various studies have noted a correlation between anti-sex work rhetoric that sees street-based workers as a nuisance or threat to public order and an increase in violence against workers.

6.) Sex workers frequently aren’t protected by rape shield laws. New Yorkand Ohio explicitly exclude prostitution to be used as character evidence against rape victims. Judges in states without explicit exclusion of sex work often allow for prostitution to be brought up.

7.) Sex workers are often ineligible for rape victim compensation funds or receive reduced amounts. In the United Kingdom, anyone with a minor conviction, including a conviction for public solicitation,is barred from receiving full rape victim compensation. In United States, sex worker survivors cannot receive compensation for lost wages from engaging in illegal forms of sex work. In Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Florida,and Ohio, individuals with felony convictions are not eligible for compensation at all while in others, such as Rhode Island, discretion is given to agency administering the victims assistance fund. Perhaps the largest barrier, many states deny or reduce awards for any actions which may have contributed to victimization, with most states categorically denying compensation if the assault happened to the victim while they were voluntarily engaging in illegal activity. For example, Indiana specifies that “a victim who was injured while committing, attempting to commit, participating in or attempting to participate in a criminal act” is ineligible for victims’ compensation.

9.) Sometimes sex workers are arrested when they report violence, including trafficking to the police. This practice has been documented in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Central and Eastern Europe. Undocumented migrant workers can face deportation if they report crimes, and while visas exist for migrant trafficking victims, some countries, including Norway, regularly deport non-native victims of trafficking in the sex trade when they come forward for help.

10.) Sex worker rape victims rarely report victimization to the police. In Toronto, 100% of migrant sex workers interviewed by the Migrant Sex Workers Project said they would not call the police if they experienced violence. In Vancouver, Canada, only 25% of youth engaged in survival sex who had been sexually assaulted reported to the police. Of the youth who had been victimized, 18% did not receive help from anyone, including boyfriends, other sex workers, friends or parents. Sex workers express barriers to reporting sexual and other forms of violence to the police across the world – in Central and Eastern Europe, in Asia, Africa, and South America.

11.) Sex Workers are especially vulnerable to police violence, as police officers can threaten victims with arrest or stage an arrest and sexually assault victims. In former Soviet Bloc countries, a high proportion of sex workers report being sexually assault by police–with rates as high as 90 percent in Kyrgyzstan. In Bangladesh, between 52% and 60% of street-based sex workers reported being raped by men in uniform. In South Africa, sex workers are routinely harassed, beaten, and assaulted. Police sexual violence against sex workers also exists in the United States: 17% of sex workers interviewed in a New York study reported sexual harassment and abuse, including rape, by police. In a Chicago study, 30% of erotic dancers and 24% of street-based sex workers who had been raped identified a police officer as the rapist. Approximately 20 % of other acts of sexual violence reported by study participants were committed by the police. In Bolivia, police regularly arrest sex workers and either extort money or force them to engage in coercive sex.

12.) Migrant sex workers, women (especially trans women) of color, drug users, and individuals with criminal records are especially vulnerable due to intersecting bias. In Norway, several migrant sex workers were evicted from their apartment and had their cash and electronics seized after reporting violent rape by individuals impersonating police. Migrant sex worker victims also face risk of being deported in Canada and the United States if they seek law enforcement help, and while relief from deportation for victims theoretically exists, it is inconsistently applied, high-barrier, quota-capped and temporary, and the process of applying for relief is labor-intensive, lengthy, and biased against imperfect victims. Trans women of color face disproportionateprofiling as sex workers and disproportionate police misconduct and sexual assault while in custody. And as a current, all-to-common example of how race, class, and criminalization of drug use and sex work intersect to make women vulnerable to state violence, Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw preyed on 13 black, low-income women, many with criminal records for prostitution and drug use, systematically using threat of arrest and the victims’ vulnerability due to race, class, and status as a sex worker or drug user to assault them.

13.) Criminalizing just clients increases violence against sex workers. Rape and sexual assault reports increased two-fold after Scotland introduced laws criminalizing solicitation in 2007. Generally, criminalization of clients can result indisplacement of street-based sex workers to more dangerous areas, make it more difficult for sex workers to access outreach services, result in sex workers working in isolation to avoid detection, and result in sex workers “rushing” conversations with clients to evade arrest, ultimately jeopardizing safety.

14.) Rates of sexual and physical violence against sex workers are lowerin contexts where sex work is not criminalized. A recent academic article found that decriminalization is the only framework that would secure human rights for sex workers in South Africa. Across contexts, decriminalization allows sex workers to work together and for street-based sex workers to work in safer areas, factors which increase safety. Decriminalization also increases sex worker access to justice and allows sex workers to report violence to the police without fearing arrest. 70% of sex workers and social service providers in New Zealand say that sex workers were more likely to go to the police after sex work had been decriminalized.

15.) Sex work is not a form of sexual violence, but sex workers are especially vulnerable to sexual and intimate partner violence. Conflating sexual violence and sex work can increase violence against sex workers by perpetuating stigma, it can alienate sex workers from social services, and it can result in sex workers who are victims of violence being ignored.

16.) Sex workers sometimes also face structural violence from healthcare and social service professionals, but there are things agencies can to to help fight violence against sex workers. They can train staff to be culturally competent towards sex workers. They can organize bad date lists. They can support policies that increase sex worker access to justice, safety, and human rights. They can support or create space for peer-led efforts for safety and organizing.

17.) Sex workers – even the most vulnerable sex workers – are resilient, and in the face of individual and systematic violence, they support each other in staying safe and fighting back against violence. They organize bad date lists and share information about bad clients. They work together and look out for each other. They serve as safety buddies for each other. And they come together to support other sex workers who have experienced victimization. They conduct their own research. They teach service providers how to serve people in the sex trade without stigma. They educate each other about legal systems and their rights. Sex workers don’t need rescue or sympathy, they need solidarity in their fight for human rights.

All Images are from the African Sex Workers Alliance[ASWA] 16 Days of Activism Campaign. ASWA is the Pan African Alliance of sex worker led groups, and works strengthen the voices, empower, advocate for and advance the health and human rights of female, male, and transgender sex workers through networking, movement-building, and partnership development. The images are part of an online campaign of African sex workers, activists and human rights defenders showing solidarity to end violence against sex workers. Tied with this campaign is the build up to the December 17th International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers campaign marked globally to highlight injustices committed to sex workers.

To learn more about the Aftican Sex Workers Alliance and their 16 Days of Activism campaign, visit the ASWA Website.

To learn more about violence against sex workers and Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, visit the December 17th Website.

1.) Sex workers experience high levels of sexual violence. Globally, sex workers have a 45 to 75% chance of experiencing sexual violence at some point in their careers and a 32 to 55% chance of experiencing sexual violence in a given year.

2.) Sexual assault against individuals engaged sex work (especially criminalized forms of sex work) in the United States is also high. In Phoenix, AZ 37% of prostitution diversion program participants report being raped by a client, and 7.1% report being raped by a pimp. In Miami, FL, 34% of street-based sex workers reported violent encounters with clients in the past 90 days. In New York, 46% of indoor sex workers reported being forced to do something by a client that they did not want to do, and over 80% of street-based sex workers experienced violence.

3.) One in five police reports of sexual assault from an urban, U.S. emergency room were filed by sex workers. Sex workers were younger, poorer and suffered a greater number of injuries than other victims.

5.) Stigma increases violence.Various studies have noted a correlation between anti-sex work rhetoric that sees street-based workers as a nuisance or threat to public order and an increase in violence against workers.

6.) Sex workers frequently aren’t protected by rape shield laws. New Yorkand Ohio explicitly exclude prostitution to be used as character evidence against rape victims. Judges in states without explicit exclusion of sex work often allow for prostitution to be brought up.

7.) Sex workers are often ineligible for rape victim compensation funds or receive reduced amounts. In the United Kingdom, anyone with a minor conviction, including a conviction for public solicitation,is barred from receiving full rape victim compensation. In United States, sex worker survivors cannot receive compensation for lost wages from engaging in illegal forms of sex work. In Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Florida,and Ohio, individuals with felony convictions are not eligible for compensation at all while in others, such as Rhode Island, discretion is given to agency administering the victims assistance fund. Perhaps the largest barrier, many states deny or reduce awards for any actions which may have contributed to victimization, with most states categorically denying compensation if the assault happened to the victim while they were voluntarily engaging in illegal activity. For example, Indiana specifies that “a victim who was injured while committing, attempting to commit, participating in or attempting to participate in a criminal act” is ineligible for victims’ compensation.

9.) Sometimes sex workers are arrested when they report violence, including trafficking to the police. This practice has been documented in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Central and Eastern Europe. Undocumented migrant workers can face deportation if they report crimes, and while visas exist for migrant trafficking victims, some countries, including Norway, regularly deport non-native victims of trafficking in the sex trade when they come forward for help.

10.) Sex worker rape victims rarely report victimization to the police. In Toronto, 100% of migrant sex workers interviewed by the Migrant Sex Workers Project said they would not call the police if they experienced violence. In Vancouver, Canada, only 25% of youth engaged in survival sex who had been sexually assaulted reported to the police. Of the youth who had been victimized, 18% did not receive help from anyone, including boyfriends, other sex workers, friends or parents. Sex workers express barriers to reporting sexual and other forms of violence to the police across the world – in Central and Eastern Europe, in Asia, Africa, and South America.

11.) Sex Workers are especially vulnerable to police violence, as police officers can threaten victims with arrest or stage an arrest and sexually assault victims. In former Soviet Bloc countries, a high proportion of sex workers report being sexually assault by police–with rates as high as 90 percent in Kyrgyzstan. In Bangladesh, between 52% and 60% of street-based sex workers reported being raped by men in uniform. In South Africa, sex workers are routinely harassed, beaten, and assaulted. Police sexual violence against sex workers also exists in the United States: 17% of sex workers interviewed in a New York study reported sexual harassment and abuse, including rape, by police. In a Chicago study, 30% of erotic dancers and 24% of street-based sex workers who had been raped identified a police officer as the rapist. Approximately 20 % of other acts of sexual violence reported by study participants were committed by the police. In Bolivia, police regularly arrest sex workers and either extort money or force them to engage in coercive sex.

12.) Migrant sex workers, women (especially trans women) of color, drug users, and individuals with criminal records are especially vulnerable due to intersecting bias. In Norway, several migrant sex workers were evicted from their apartment and had their cash and electronics seized after reporting violent rape by individuals impersonating police. Migrant sex worker victims also face risk of being deported in Canada and the United States if they seek law enforcement help, and while relief from deportation for victims theoretically exists, it is inconsistently applied, high-barrier, quota-capped and temporary, and the process of applying for relief is labor-intensive, lengthy, and biased against imperfect victims. Trans women of color face disproportionateprofiling as sex workers and disproportionate police misconduct and sexual assault while in custody. And as a current, all-to-common example of how race, class, and criminalization of drug use and sex work intersect to make women vulnerable to state violence, Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw preyed on 13 black, low-income women, many with criminal records for prostitution and drug use, systematically using threat of arrest and the victims’ vulnerability due to race, class, and status as a sex worker or drug user to assault them.

13.) Criminalizing just clients increases violence against sex workers. Rape and sexual assault reports increased two-fold after Scotland introduced laws criminalizing solicitation in 2007. Generally, criminalization of clients can result indisplacement of street-based sex workers to more dangerous areas, make it more difficult for sex workers to access outreach services, result in sex workers working in isolation to avoid detection, and result in sex workers “rushing” conversations with clients to evade arrest, ultimately jeopardizing safety.

14.) Rates of sexual and physical violence against sex workers are lowerin contexts where sex work is not criminalized. A recent academic article found that decriminalization is the only framework that would secure human rights for sex workers in South Africa. Across contexts, decriminalization allows sex workers to work together and for street-based sex workers to work in safer areas, factors which increase safety. Decriminalization also increases sex worker access to justice and allows sex workers to report violence to the police without fearing arrest. 70% of sex workers and social service providers in New Zealand say that sex workers were more likely to go to the police after sex work had been decriminalized.

15.) Sex work is not a form of sexual violence, but sex workers are especially vulnerable to sexual and intimate partner violence. Conflating sexual violence and sex work can increase violence against sex workers by perpetuating stigma, it can alienate sex workers from social services, and it can result in sex workers who are victims of violence being ignored.

16.) Sex workers sometimes also face structural violence from healthcare and social service professionals, but there are things agencies can to to help fight violence against sex workers. They can train staff to be culturally competent towards sex workers. They can organize bad date lists. They can support policies that increase sex worker access to justice, safety, and human rights. They can support or create space for peer-led efforts for safety and organizing.

17.) Sex workers – even the most vulnerable sex workers – are resilient, and in the face of individual and systematic violence, they support each other in staying safe and fighting back against violence. They organize bad date lists and share information about bad clients. They work together and look out for each other. They serve as safety buddies for each other. And they come together to support other sex workers who have experienced victimization. They conduct their own research. They teach service providers how to serve people in the sex trade without stigma. They educate each other about legal systems and their rights. Sex workers don’t need rescue or sympathy, they need solidarity in their fight for human rights.

All Images are from the African Sex Workers Alliance[ASWA] 16 Days of Activism Campaign. ASWA is the Pan African Alliance of sex worker led groups, and works strengthen the voices, empower, advocate for and advance the health and human rights of female, male, and transgender sex workers through networking, movement-building, and partnership development. The images are part of an online campaign of African sex workers, activists and human rights defenders showing solidarity to end violence against sex workers. Tied with this campaign is the build up to the December 17th International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers campaign marked globally to highlight injustices committed to sex workers.

To learn more about the Aftican Sex Workers Alliance and their 16 Days of Activism campaign, visit the ASWA Website.

To learn more about violence against sex workers and Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, visit the December 17th Website.

EBOOK – “SenSexual: A Unique Anthology 2013”

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4 Videos Below-Readings are only recorded at the request of the presenter.

Monica Day performance/reading two poems: The Fifth Year and This is My Body for January 2013 Erotic Literary Salon
M. Dante reading SKIN dedicated to the art and inspiration of Heide Hatry for December 2013 Erotic Literary Salon
Frances' reading,“Go the Fok to Sleep”
Dr. Susana Mayer’s NBC10 interview of “50 Shades of Grey”